Israel 'Completely Rejects' UN Approval of New PA Status

The Cabinet has unanimously voted Sunday to reject the UN decision to grant the Palestinian Authority nonmember observer state status.

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Chana Ya'ar, 02/12/12 13:58

Binyamin Netanyahu at cabinet session

Israel news photo: Flash 90

The Cabinet unanimously voted Sunday morning to reject the United Nations decision to grant the Palestinian Authority nonmember observer state status. The move allowed the PA to circument its obligation under the internationally-mandated Oslo Accords, signed by both parties in the early 1990s, to negotiate a final status agreement with Israel.

At its regular weekly meeting in Jerusalem, the government passed a resolution completely rejecting the U.N. resolution passed last Thursday that in effect recognized the PA as a de facto , independent, sovereign state.

In his opening remarks at the start of the meeting, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said bluntly, “Israel will not allow Judea and Samaria to become a terror base from which rockets will be launched into Israeli towns. There will be no Palestinian State until Israel is recognized as a Jewish State, alongside a resolution to end the conflict.”

The resolution passed by the Cabinet reads in part: "The Jewish People have a natural, historical and legal right to its homeland with its eternal capital Jerusalem. The State of Israel as the state of the Jewish People has rights and claims to areas that are under dispute in the Land of Israel.”

In addition, the Cabinet emphasized that the resolution passed by the United Nations does not change the status of those disputed areas. Nor does the U.N. resolution detract in any way from the right of the State of Israel and the Jewish People to those disputed areas, all of which were restored to Israel in defensive wars.

Furthermore, the U.N. resolution will not become the basis for future negotiations between the State of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the Cabinet resolution affirmed.

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz also said at the outset of the meeting he would not send to the PA tax monies that had been earmarked for transfer later this month. Instead, those funds will be used to pay at least part of the PA's electricity debt to Israel, which has been in arrears for some time.